CTA From The Archives: The North Shore Line 

Did they actually take down all the tracks on the original North Shoreline from Willmete to Waukegan? I was checking Google Maps and I saw an old station house on Indian Hill. The embankment on the current stop looks very old. That’s why I’m asking.

I’d take it into Wisconsin

Yes, I agree. but it was inevitable. You must agree unless you have a good substitute for the alternative. The most egregious thing was the sham to get rid of the Chicago Surface Lines. So many doubters were shown many years later the real collusion, a set up as you alluded to. The biggest miscarriage was using the tragic and horrible accident around '52 -'53 at 63rd and Halsted (someone please correct me if you wish as to the place and date) I remember the occurrence well. A Greenhornet Streetcar jumped its tracks in a construction zone and most of the passengers of the filled car were killed due to the car hitting a gasoline tanker truck. Only a few escaped through the rear windows.The last damages claim was settled only a few years ago. In around '52 I road most of the CSL/CTA lines routes with friends (young whipper-snappers) around the city on one fare(10 cents) each and a free transfer ticket, good for a couple of hours but most of the conductors and motormen let us use the expired punch ticket when we told him why we were taking the ride, good people all around back then. We and they knew that time was short. My thanks, Posthumously. to the videographer and the CTA archives for making this expensive film available. Cheers and tears for times long gone, and sadness for those of you who don't have the memories of the old"ELs"/Streetcars and seeing RR Steam-engines coming to and going from central station.

@@246spyder the democrats too

Don't forget license/registration fees and car insurance payments.

We also have the Metra train going to Kenosha and Amtrak to Milwaukee .

The Depression and WW2 were much more to blame. Fifteen years of deferred maintenance and five years of hard wartime service meant that entire systems were worn out and had to be rebuilt or replaced all at once. Converting to buses meant getting rid of track and overhead wire maintenance. And after the Depression and war, people wanted new cars and new "everything".

And then the CTA would have taken over and cut back the line

Had the North Shore survived long enough that an RTA-type organization was formed to support passenger rail, I think the competing steam railroads that had already modernized their commuter services would have pulled every string they could to have the North Shore excluded as "redundant".

And CTA wanted North Shore trains off the L.

Scooby Carr Yeah lol. Luckily I always look both way at train intersections because I'm not stupid.

briansivley2001 Yay! Excellent! Thanks and please have a nice day and please be safe.

People weren't such pansies back then.

I never noticed that before!

How old are you?

briansivley2001 dude I know right! the current metra up. north line only goes to Milwaukee.....I wish they could've merged with the cnw(now up/metra) and the current metra diesel services could be express to milwaukee while local I interurban services could be local/semi express. much of the row is now a speedway for bikesters lol!

Jdub w You mean Kenosha. I know that Metra Union Pacific North Line doesn't go all the way to Milwaukee it only goes as far as Kenosha.

oh man my bad yeah the up north line only goes to Kenosha. idk how I typed Milwaukee on that sentence. but they should extend it to mileaukee(see krm project)

The C&NW was a long-time rival, and in 1965 they actually bought the North Shore Line between Skokie and Northbrook to prevent the CTA from running trains north of Dempster.

I;m not so sure the North Western purchased the North Shore tracks between Dempster St. and Northbrook to prevent competition from the CTA. After all, the C&NW had no commuter train operations near this trackage. I worked for the C&NW through all of the 1980s (now retired from the Soo Line) and we use to run heavy coal trains over this line as a short cut through the city from the Illinois Central connection to the power plants in Wisconsin. I suspect the reason this line is no longer used by today's Union Pacific is because it was slow going and the track/roadbed was in pretty rough shape from years of use.

Kevin Howard Those are interlaced “gauntlet” (or “gantlet”) tracks which overlap

The tracks on the left were the parallel C&NW steam railroad.

The same was true with the Chicago, Aurora & Elgin - it ran parallel to, and often right next to, the C&NW West line. It's kind of surprising it lasted as long as it did.

mlweiland There are a few maps online which show the names in the Skokie Valley route

Here’s an image www.chicago-l.org/plans/images/NSL-CTA1.jpg

i.pinimg.com/236x/1b/cd/3f/1bcd3fe0dd003aa55020c1ee1ff49ee9.jpg

1. The North Shore Line had a number of advantages over the C&NW or Milwaukee Road, including faster speeds, shorter operating headway, a one-seat ride to the loop and minimal interference from freight. 2. The stations along the Skokie Valley Route were initially named as part of a newspaper competition that the railroad sponsored in the 1920s. A number of them were changed over the years as the area and communities served saw more significant development. 3. The branch to Libertyville and Mundelein was actually constructed in the early 1900s, before Insull was involved with the railroad. The original intent had been to provide freight interchange points with the EJ&E, Milwaukee Road and Wisconsin Central, as well as a connection to a large gravel pit in Libertyville. Additionally, an eventual extension to Fox Lake had been considered, though this ultimately never came to fruition.

Not the CTA "L" trains (or the earlier Chicago Rapid Transit), but there was a railroad company called the Chicago, North Shore & Milwaukee Railroad that had its own self propelled, electric passenger cars and had trackage rights over the CTA from either Howard St. or Wilmette. Pretty much like the once sister railroad, the South Shore, today uses the Metra Electric lines starting at 111th St. to reach Randolph St. station in Chicago.

You have the right idea, but in reverse... The North Shore ran into Chicago over the "L" tracks with compatible equipment. That being said, during World War II, the North Shore leased extra equipment from the Chicago Rapid Transit Company, and there are a few points in this video where you can see trains of 4000-series "L" cars running on the North Shore tracks.

ChicagoLTrain115 Yep it does - BTW I rode this line from Howard St to Wilmette and back about 2 years ago

See the above notes at the beginning where it says "show more".

The descendant of that bus service is today part of Pace. Still the same union local, even.

The full version with the proper soundtrack is also on youtube. Look at the suggested videos or search for for 'North Shoe Line 1945.

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-27GwxWis-2g.html

exactly

The rails are mostly torn up. It couldn't make profit anymore that is why it's no longer around. This was not CTA, this was the Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee Railroad, a private company. CTA is government run

@@jamesf791 It's funny that they never really finished a job because if you use the aerial views in Google you could see that there are patches of railroad track that still sit there and also parts of the line but I noticed would CTA though is they did shrink drastically since the forties unlike New York that kept all its railroad track if Chicago never shrunk the CTA system it would be just as large as Moscow's underground or new york's MTA

@@dmann3042000 Chicago L may actually have the most miles of track then ever before. This video was NOT part of the L. While they shared the same track, that doesn't mean it was the same.

@@jamesf791 seems to make more sense

The South Shore was literally hanging on by the skin of its teeth by the 1970's, and even petitioned to abandon service itself. Its lucrative freight business what the only thing that kept it going, something the North Shore was never fortunate enough to provide.

@@JLJ061 The Edens Expressway was the final nail in the coffin of the North Shore Line.

The South Shore line is operated by an Indiana company.

@@brushcreek42 its brother the South Shore line miraculously survived

@@maas1208 It has, but it's just a ghost of what it was 50 years ago. I rode on it from Chicago to South Bend in 1969 when there was still street running in South Bend.

Think of it as The South Shore line's Northern Counterpart.

JoeyLovesTrains Cool info! Do you know if any Metra route follows/is parallel to the old North Shore Line right of way? Because I have heard that once

ChicagoLTrain115 The shore line route parallels the Metra North line

JoeyLovesTrains I have a comment on places where the North Shore Line used to serve like Highwood, Waukegan, Kenilworth, Ravinia, Winnetka and Great Lakes and that would be Metra's Union Pacific North Line in today's modern era. Along the North Shore's Skokie Valley line some of the locales are now served on Metra's Milwaukee North Line.

ChicagoLTrain115 Union Pacific's north line on Metra follows alongside the former CNS&M whose right of way is practically nonexistent now.

The governments' policies, plain and simple.

@@246spyder Also, the population of the country grew by over 100 million people since this was filmed in 1945 and most everyone preferred (and still do) to use their autos to get around versus taking passenger trains.

Rail Faner Yep. And in its early years, it ran all the way to Jackson Park.

ChicagoLTrain115 Wow! Cool!

@@DoncasterA1Music So the elevated or the L in Chicago was technically much much much bigger back then running several more miles of track as far as Milwaukee?

​@@dmann3042000 The North Shore was a separate railroad, but it and the "L" had the same owners for several years, hence the compatible equipment and trackage rights into Chicago over the "L" system.

@@northshoreline6704 That is what I thought, because the wheels on the trains seem to function the same unlike now where there is distance between the trains and the elevated

Possibly, could also be 9.5 mm Pathe format, because this has nearly the same picture size.